ERC announces preliminary results of Starting Grants call

The European Research Council (ERC) has published preliminary data on the proposals submitted under the ERC Starting Grants 2020 call which closed on 16 October 2019.

The ERC received 3,271 applications in this year's call. This is a more than 5 % increase compared to the previous Starting Grants call. The highest number of applications was submitted in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering (1,415), followed by Social Science and Humanities (943), and Life Sciences (913). Nearly 38% of proposals were submitted by women, compared to 39% last year.

€ 677 million from the ERC budget are earmarked for an estimated 455 Starting Grants in 2020. The ERC is now starting evaluation of the proposals. The projects selected for funding will be announced in summer 2020.